477 - 484

Chapter 477: Lucien's Saint Badge

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

In Lucien's half-substantialized cognitive world, the bright Host Star of Destiny abruptly started orbiting. The black hole behind that seemed able to devour everything rotated to the front, bending the surrounding light. Even time seemed to slow down. Any prying into this space using basic senses became unreliable, as sight and light had deviated from its trajectory.

Praying, Lucien appeared to be rather serious and devoted. Suddenly, the Seed of Spirit began trembling like a hound that saw its bleeding prey. In the next second, the seed had dissolved into Lucien's chest and burst out pure and cold light, enveloping Lucien within.

Ell was surprised to see that the power of the moon suited Leviathan so perfectly. The slight deviation in Lucien's cognitive world made Ell believe that there was nothing suspicious about what just happened, but only the proof that Leviathan was quite gifted and trustworthy. Ell nodded approvingly and retreated his sight.

Jacob was also a bit surprised and shifted his gaze as well. Their reaction made the speculative mysterious smile disappear on Francis' face. Once again, nothing here seemed to attract Francis' interest.

The light of the silver moon gradually dissipated. Lucien now looked even calmer and introverted. He took a swing with his fist, and, not surprisingly at all, it left moonlight shadows in the air.

"Your body took in the Seed of Spirit very well. The power of the moon suits you. The result is the best." What Ell wanted to say was that the result even exceeded his expectations. However, it suddenly occurred to him that as the Supreme, he could not admit his uncertainty about the specific power the seed carried, so he changed his words.

Jacob chimed in. "You have really become the seventh apostle now, Leviathan. It seemed that your power has reached that of a competitive divine-blooded!"

"This is the blessing from my Lord," said Lucien calmly. The seed seemingly brought calmness to him, so he was not in any wild joy at all.

Ell nodded. Next, Ell turned to instill power Jacob's Seed of Spirit, enhancing it to the limit of level six. Then Ell released a sigh and said, "It's a pity that I totally destroyed the Lord of Underworld, or I would've been able to find His realm and assimilate the godhood of death."

Ell looked rather confident, for He had managed to persuade Himself that it was His own power that killed the Lord of Underworld.

Lucien almost burst into laughter but held it back. Weighing his words, he said, "Great Lord, when I was in the water, the currents pushed me to an area which I believe is the Lord of Underworld's realm… Maybe there is treasure left…"

Confinement Spell could seal the target in a space created by distortion. Unless the target was at least three levels stronger than the caster, there was no way the target could get out. The target would either be confined in the space forever or get lost in the space maze and finally be destroyed by the space storm.

The only chance to get out for the target was to send out a message asking for help. As long as the location was known or could be located through prophecy, the ninth-circle magic spell Freedom could be used to crack Confinement.

Therefore, when Lucien helped Ell by activating Sun Staff's Confinement, he was well aware of the fact that it was the true self of the Lord of Underworld that was confined, not the avatars. The Lord of Underworld's avatars would at most become weaker due to the reduced connection.

"His realm is at the bottom of Solna River? Wasn't it in the Death Vally where the river originates?" Asked Ell in surprise. "Did the Lord of Underworld move for fear of the possible revenge from me? Such a pity, the Death Valley is the perfect place for the godhood of death and underworld… Or was there some kind of agreement between the Lord of Underworld and the Lord of War that made the Lord of War move there at ease? Maybe it has something to do with the arrival of the Lord of War in the city of Husum and the debate…"

Ell did not doubt that Leviathan, the "devoted" follower, would lie on this matter.

Having no clues for the answers to these questions, Ell said, "Although Antanas could never expect that we would go back to the city of Husum, there's still no need for us to go back. The Lord of Underworld is dead, and the treasure is always there. When we find the realm of the rest of the fake gods after we kill them one by one, treasures are guaranteed."

In the past, Avando had been obsessed with treasure and beauty. But now, Ell, after awakening the ambition and vision, was now able to control the desire. There was nothing more important than ascending the supreme throne again.

Ell smiled and then threw Lucien the laurel box that had started to rot. "If you like treasure, I'll give you some, as your reward."

Lucien took the box and saw a layer of fine silver powder lying at the bottom, which seemed to be the remainders after Ell consumed the light ball that was the godhood of Asin.

It was powder of the Stone of Moon God! Lucien was very surprised, as it was even more precious than top-quality Moonlight Stone or Death Stone. More importantly, the powder could be used to repair Lucien's Ice & Snow Medal and Immortal Throne robe!

Lucien was about to use other materials to fix the medal and the robe, but now he had found this much better alternative.

The smile on Francis' face became rigid for a second — He also wanted the powder.

Jacob said cautiously after hearing Ell's ambition, "we have to be careful. The false gods might join the Lord of War and use themselves as baits. We can wait for a while until the Lord of War's patience wore off, and then we can deal with them one by one."

"I know." Ell nodded and said, "Leviathan is smart and motivated, Francis is powerful and profound, and Jacob is cautious and well-organized. You three are my best servants."

After Francis, Lucien, and Jacob expressed their loyalty one more time, Ell continued, "Francis once talked to me about the ranks of angels, and I am satisfied with it. You three are the most powerful angels following me. Francis, you have the power of destruction, so you are the Angel of Death, and also the Angel of Justice.

"And you, Jacob, you are my first follower and you have ever been preaching my words. You are the Angel of Enlightenment, and also the Angel of Redemption. You, Leviathan, you are the new and youngest apostle, full of energy. So you are my Angel of Glory, the Morning Star, the Son of Dawn."

Lucien was a bit speechless. He wondered why the title "the Fallen Morning Star" followed him to this alternate realm.

"I will go back to my realm to enhance my godhood and stabilize my domain. Jacob, go back to Politown and get ready for preaching. Also, send some followers to watch over the false gods and to take down records in order to assist Francis for future plans. Leviathan, you go to the place we previously agreed on to wait for Anheuse and then go back to Politown with him. On your way back, start preaching but do it secretly." Ell gave orders to them one by one, leaving Lucien to wait for Anheuse because it was known that Leviathan could not fly.

"As your command, my Lord," answered the three in chorus.

After Ell, Jacob, and Francis all left, Lucien finally released a sigh of relief. They, Francis in particular, were giving him great pressure.

After waiting for another while to make sure that they were not somehow coming back, Lucien touched his chest and took out a patterned badge covered in a layer of moonlight.

Before joining the Secret Praying Congress, Lucien was told about the Seed of Spirit. The existence of it was constantly being mentioned afterward. Cautious as Lucien, he must have been prepared.

After reading through the materials, based on the features of the false gods and their power, referring to the design of Sun's Corona, Lucien made a semi-finished badge using the materials he had.

Although at that time he did not have the full grip of the structure that he learned from Sun's Corona, Lucien was still quite confident that it could absorb the power of the Seed of Spirit and turn into a complete divine item.

After knowing how God's Glory and the Seed of Spirit worked, Lucien was totally confident that his plan would work. Therefore, he took his time watching how Francis took in the power of the seed.

Then, as the Secretive, Lucien successfully deceived Ell and Francis, who never thought of thoroughly investigating Leviathan. Relying on the resonance from Sun's Corona, Lucien absorbed the Seed of Spirit using this badge and turned it into a level-three divine item.

The badge could improve the wearer's recovery ability, agility, speed, and strength to level three. If the wearer's Blood Power originated from the silver moon, then the level would be increased to four. But, since the badge did not improve the wearer's reaction speed, a real level four grand knight would still be more competitive.

Lucien left the message within the item and named it,

"Ell's Saint Badge, level-three senior-rank divine item."

…

"Perhaps, this badge is the truly devoted follower.

"From Lucien Evans."

Hanging the badge under his robe, Lucien started fixing the two magic items using the powder. Then he would be meeting Anheuse.

...

At the bottom of Solna River, among the currents, there was dim light emerging. The voice of the Lord of Underworld came,

"I'm finally free! I will kill you, Ell! I'll put your soul deep into the underworld and lash it for ten thousand years!"

Somehow the Lord of Underworld had freed Himself from Confinement and returned to this dimension.

After the dizziness from teleportation disappeared, the two red light spots in the Lord of Underworld's sockets suddenly froze,

The Lord of Underworld saw no one around, but he thought that it was his avatar finding the Lord of War for help that freed him.

As soon as this thought appeared, a sword entangled with flame emerged out of nowhere, carrying an overwhelming power of destruction.

A deep crack appeared the body of the Lord of Underworld. The two red light spots disappeared easily, like candlelight that was blown out.

...

"My sincere appreciation and gratefulness, my Lord. I did not expect this at all… It was all my fault." After losing the power for maintaining the human look, Asin now had gone back to his real look — an old centaur. As Asin spoke, his white beard swayed fiercely. He was obviously very upset.

The Lord of War, whose appearance was a middle-aged man wearing an eye patch, nodded. "The enemy is too cunning, and the rest of the gods are too timid. You are the first one serving me in loyalty, and I will treat you well.

"This godhood is from a false god I killed last month. It suits you, so take it."

A light ball was sent to Asin from the Lord of War's hand.

It was a great surprise to Asin, as he never expected that the Lord of War would make such a generous reward.

"My Lord, this is… godhood of the Morning Star?" Asin stammered.

"The Star of Morning, the Star of Dusk, the Incarnation of Love and Beauty, the Secret Death and Resurrection. After you take in the godhood, you will become Ell's main target," Antanas said rather openly. The four duties coming from the godhood would be a great tempt to Ell, as nothing else other than the godhood of the Lord of Underworld and this one worked better for Ell to boost his power.

The Lord of War was using Asin as a bait, obviously. After a second of hesitation, Asin still took in the light ball. There was no other option.

As Asin absorbed the godhood gradually, His body started to change. Features of the centaur and the beard disappeared, the shape of human body resumed, but now Asin had turned into a gorgeous beauty with fine skin and blond hair.

"Good. From now on, you're the God of Love and Beauty, the Star of Morning and Dusk," said Antanas, satisfied, as he reached out his right hand and touched Asin's face.

After Asin left, the hall became quiet again, and cold wind blew in. Antanas just stood there in silence for a long time.

Chapter 478: Face to Face, But Not Able to Recognize

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

In city Husum of the Solna River Valley, there were soldiers everywhere searching for preachers and believers of the God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption. The searching messed the entire city, and the mess extended all day long into the deep night.

However, the search yielded nothing. Most of the followers of Ell were the previous followers of the God of Flame and Destruction, who were experts in hiding in the crowd. Unless the clergies of the Lord of War and the other gods could match in number with that of the Saint Truth Church so that they could examine the people one by one on the street using divine spells, it was impossible that they could find a clue tracking the secret preachers.

As for those new followers of Ell who converted after attending the debate and seeing how Ell killed the Lord of Underworld within a second, they were of no value for the searching, as these new followers knew nothing about the initiators and priests.

"Send out these letters and do as said in the letters. This is the prepayment. When my friend sees the mark and finds you, you'll get the rest," said Ramiro who had changed his look again to a merchant.

The traveling merchant nodded hurriedly and took over the gold coins and the letters. The pay was too generous to make him say no!

He wished to hit the road right away! He was so lucky to run into such a wealthy man!

In fear of the mysterious ninth-circle archmage and the Lord of War, Ramiro decided to reach the three top night watchers who had arrived in Erdo with him, the five senior-rank priests, two gold knights, and six radiant knights investigating the meteorite incident that happened three years ago in the north to ask for help. Something going on here was definitely not right!

Because of the certain restriction in this dimension, the Church only managed to set up a few teleportation circles in the fully-controlled countries. In remote areas, they still had to rely on the most primordial methods to communicate.

Ramiro also decided that currently there was no necessity to report this to the grand cardinals and Varantine, the leader of the ascetics, who were investigating different things across the dimension. They were already short of hands, and aside from the unconfirmed existence of the mysterious archmage, there was nothing worthy of attention here

Three years ago, many places in this dimension witnessed meteor showers, making it impossible to know where Alterna and the mysterious existence from the World of Souls exactly ended up falling. Ramiro had to find a chance to approach the false god who took away the godhood of the God of Moon. Somehow, all the dimensions where human beings were living shared a similar length of day and night and the length of a year like the main material world. In the dimensions not suitable for humans to live, it was the opposite case.

When Ramiro turned around and was about to leave, he heard the nearby people talking,

"I heard that the Lord of Underworld had been killed by the almighty Lord of Redemption. Keep it as a secret: The statue of the Lord of Underworld in the temple cracked right from the middle, and most of the priests of the Lord of Underworld had lost their power."

"Really? I remembered that the almighty God of Redemption only said two words at that time!" Said another man. Ordinary folk like him could not understand ancient Baburian.

"So what the priests said on the debate is true. When the searching comes to an end, I'll…" The man who was talking did not finish his words, as he could not fully trust the people he was talking to.

"Don't say that too early. If Ell is that powerful, Ell would have killed Asin a long time ago. But now Asin had resumed his power and became the God of Love and Beauty, the Star of Morning and Dusk. Now, Asin's priests are receiving the new power," said another man, who was the follower of Bero, the God of Sun and Justice.

Ramiro was very surprised to know that so many things had happened. The Lord of Underworld had died! Who did it?

According to the Church, the temper of those false gods changed greatly as they took in different godhoods, and some of them ended up being driven by their desire and losing the ability of thinking. When Ramiro was thinking to himself, he noticed something unusual — When those people were talking, one of them was obviously absent-minded and kept looking around.

There was definitely something wrong with this guy. Ramiro believed that this man was not the follower of the Lord of Underworld, because the man was not interested in the conversation at all.

Ramiro decided to follow this short, young man. As an experienced night watcher, Ramiro was very sensitive to anything worthy of investigation.

In an ordinary mud hut.

Reis, the short young man, sneaked into the hut after carefully checking around. Anheuse was waiting in the hut.

Reis said to Anheuse, "my dear Initiator, the almighty Lord of Redemption and the rest of the initiators have left the city. The number of guards at the city gate has been reduced. I was also told that…"

Anheuse was left in the city to deal with the remaining issues after their original plan failed. Due to the strict search, Anheuse had been waiting for the chance leaving this city for quite a while.

Hearing Reis' information, Anheuse drew a cross in front of his chest and said, "my Lord's almighty power is profound. The Lord of Underworld tried to betray the true lord, severe punishment then ensues. You can leave now. When everything settles down, I'll preach to you about the blessedness granted by the Lord."

"We only follow the Lord of Redemption." Reis also drew a cross in front of his chest and left in respect.

Watching Reis go, Anheuse locked the door and was about to put the makeup on to disguise himself. At this time, someone gently patted him on the shoulder, and he heard a low laugh just beside his ears.

"I'd like to hear about the blessedness granted by the almighty Lord of Redemption as well."

...

The silver moon hung high in the night sky. It was late and silent, and Lucien was waiting for Anheuse beside the river in the darkness.

After quite a while, Lucien finally saw Anheuse came stealthily.

"Are you here, Leviathan?" Asked Anheuse in low voice.

After he made sure that it was truly Anheuse, Lucien walked out from the darkness. "It's late. You got in any trouble?"

"A bit…" answered Anheuse briefly. "Leviathan, I suppose you've earned the Seed of Spirit from the Lord, right?"

Lucien was a bit surprised to hear this question. The timing seemed to be quite bad. But he still answered, "yes, the almighty Ell gave both Francis and me the Seed of Spirit. Jacob was awarded, too. When you return to Politown, you'll receive your award as well."

"I see… is it powerful? How does it work?" Anheuse asked eagerly and looked a bit jealous.

Lucien understood how Anheuse felt, so he smiled. "It's just for improving my strength, speed, agility, and the ability to recover. Plus my inherent strength, I can now fight against a divine-blooded hero."

"Good," Anheuse's voice revealed a slight of his joy, as if he was glad to know that there was nothing special about Leviathan's Seed of Spirit. "Alright, we should go now."

Deep inside, Anheuse was indeed happy. Because he was, in fact, Ramiro the Body Controller. Ramiro had killed Anheuse after absorbing his conscious memories and body cells.

Ramiro felt so blessed for being this lucky. Finding Anheuse meant that he could now find Francis and figure out why they wanted the godhood of the God of Moon. When Ramiro found that he could not cast all of Anheuse's divine spells and was concerned that this might be his major flaw, the apostle he found named Leviathan was not able to tell this at all, since the Seed of Spirit Leviathan received was just for improving his physical strength. What's more, Ramiro could easily turn himself into Leviathan, and then he would be perfectly safe.

Ramiro was rather pleased with himself. He believed that this was because of his many years of loyalty to his Lord.

Glancing around, Ramiro was about to take action.

Lucien suddenly realized that there was something wrong with Anheuse's words!

If Anheuse was feeling jealous of the award that a new apostle received, and was concerned that the power of a new apostle might exceed his, why did he not ask about Francis?

Anheuse was a loyal follower of Ell. Then why did Anheuse not mention anything about Ell?

His eyes narrowing slightly, Lucien pretended that everything was fine, while he was ready to take action at any time. He wondered if Anheuse had probably been possessed by a false god.

Ramiro had made sure that no one was around. A creepy smile appeared on his face, and the inner part of his body started wriggling.

In Ramiro's eyes, Leviathan was like a vulnerable lamb that had no power to defend himself.

They were now out of the city of Husum. Ramiro could take his time absorbing Leviathan's memories and investigate him.

The smile on Ramiro's face became bigger. He was going to show this innocent lamb his horrible power.

At this time, suddenly, a person arrived and landed on the ground, stopping Ramiro before he could take action.

"Francis?" Lucien was now even more alert.

Francis grinned. "I'm interested in the treasure left by the Lord of Underworld. Leviathan, take me there."

Although Ell was deeply convinced that the Lord of Underworld was killed by his own power, Francis believed that, based on what he saw, it was Confinement or a maze spell. He suspected that an archmage had also arrived in the city of Husum and the archmage's target was the Lord of Underworld.

...

In the realm of the God of Sun and Justice, Bero was pacing back and forth in the hall in annoyance. Although the Lord of War had withdrawn the order of expelling Them temporarily, if They failed to kill Ell within a year, more severe punishment would be waiting for them.

Considering this over and over again, Bero thought of the mysterious lady who visited the temple a few days ago claiming that she was selling secret knowledge.

Bero hoped that her secret knowledge could help Him become more powerful, so that not only Ell, but also Antanas… Bero had made up His mind.

After a long time, a gorgeous blond lady as beautiful and pure as an elf entered the realm, led by Bero's chief priest.

"Ms. Sophia, what secret knowledge do you have?" Asked Bero straightforwardly.

Sophia's jade-green eyes were clear and her smile was innocent and sweet. She took out a few books from her pouch and said, "it depends on what you want, revered God of Sun.

"I have the Book of Honesty, the Book of Order, the Book of Kindness and so on, as well as the ultimate one, the Book of Virtue."

Chapter 479: A Good Place

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The moonlight spread gently on the river bank, making everything look a bit fuzzy like it was in a dream.

Hearing Francis' words, Ramiro was quite surprised. He then purposefully put on a greedy looked and asked, "the treasure of the Lord of Underworld? Can I go with you?"

In the city of Husum, when Ramiro first heard that the Lord of Underworld had been killed, he was more than shocked. The ninth-circle spell Confinement was not Command Death, it should not be able to kill a fake god!

Once, there was a demon count who had been confined for over a thousand years but was still alive. He was set free by the hard effort of his numerous followers when the power of Confinement started fading. Therefore, Ramiro seriously suspected that the ninth-circle archmage had just confined the Lord of Underworld and would release this false god at some point after he made enough preparations to kill Him swiftly.

Ramiro would like to further investigate this, but he knew neither where the Lord of Underworld was being confined nor where the Lord of Underworld's realm was. So he had temporarily put this aside and turned to investigate the godhood of the God of Moon instead.

Knowing that it was Leviathan who found the realm of the Lord of Underworld, Ramiro was very eager to go there and try to see what actually happened to the Lord of Underworld to make Him the pray of a ninth-circle archmage.

Because of the death of the Lord of Underworld, Ramiro had ruled out his last bit of suspicion towards Leviathan. Ramiro saw it with his eyes that Leviathan jumped into the water, and that was possibly where the Confinement was cast.

Obviously, there was no time for Leviathan to go back and forth between the several agreed places without attracting Francis' attention as both of the places were relatively far away from the city of Husum, unless Leviathan had the legendary level power.

However, if that was the case, there would be no necessity at all for Leviathan to hide around. Instead, he could just directly sweep over Erdo.

"A false god's treasure must be very abundant, and I don't mind you taking a portion, Anheuse," said Francis with a smile. His main purpose of going there was also to figure out what happened to the Lord of Underworld. "You can help us, so we can finish our searching as soon as possible before the Lord of War notices."

With the same smile on his face, Francis asked Leviathan casually, "Leviathan, don't you want to go? I thought you were longing to go."

"If it was me alone, I wouldn't go for sure. Who knows what horrible things are hiding in the Lord of Underworld's realm. But now since you two are in, I'll definitely not miss it!" Lucien pretended that he was zealous. He had his own purpose for going to the domain — to investigate the mysterious sight he felt when he swam past it and the reason why the Lord of Underworld suddenly chose to move to the bottom of Solna River. Maybe he would also be able to find some good materials for fixing his magic items.

Ramiro frowned. "Then we must hurry. The realm would slowly collapse and disperse after the death of the Lord of Underworld."

After they enter the realm, Ramiro could find a better chance to kill Leviathan behind Francis' back to steal Leviathan's identity. And then he could put all the blame onto the unpredictability and strangeness of the realm.

"Show us the way, Leviathan," said Francis leisurely. In his knowledge, the Lord of Underworld was just confined, and his incarnations still existed, therefore, the domain was not going to disperse.

Lucien had the same opinion as Francis, but neither of them expressed it out. After all, Ell and his devoted followers were deeply convinced that the Lord of Underworld was killed by Ell.

Wearing the stone bracelet, Lucien took the initiative and jumped into the river, followed by Francis. Ramiro used his blood power to cast a divine-like spell on himself to breathe underwater and followed behind quietly.

Swimming against the currents for quite a while, after passing the old watergate, the three of them had approached the realm of the Lord of Underworld. For a second, Lucien sensed the weird feeling of being looked at again.

"It's here," said Francis, nodding when he saw the schools of half-rotten fish. Relying on his acute sense of the power of death, he started leading Lucien and Ramiro to swim down towards the bottom of the river.

Past the clusters of strange-looking, pale water reed, Francis purposefully hit a common-looking stone. Then, the stone quickly distorted and turned into a heavy, black gate that emitted a strong scent of death.

The stone gate was very dilapidated. The black paint was falling in tiny pieces, and the inner material was rotting.

"The Lord of Underworld died?!" Francis casual smile froze on his face — Wasn't it Confinement?!

Both Lucien and Ramiro looked at Francis in confusion. "What do you mean? The Lord of Underworld died days ago."

There was a hidden mocking in Ramiro's tone.

Although the look on Lucien's face was the same as that of Ramiro, Lucien was actually clenching his fists really tight, so tight that his nails almost sank in the skin. Lucien was, in fact, as shocked as Francis, if not more.

Lucien was the one who cast Confinement. No one knew about the situation better than him. However, now the Lord of Underworld had really died, but Lucien had no clue about this at all.

"Still… Seeing it with my own eyes feels different." Francis had resumed his usual calmness and casualness. He was not afraid of any suspect from either Anheuse or Leviathan, as, after all, he had taken in the Seed of Spirit, and he was the most powerful one among them.

Ramiro turned to look at the black stone gate and started looking for ways to open it. Later, if there was an opportunity, he could also kill Francis, which would be a good extra credit to him.

"According to the doctrine and the legends, in the Lord of Underworld's realm, there are seven stone gates outside of His palace. Every gate should be opened with an oblation, or one would be trapped between two gates until one's soul dissolves." Francis introduced briefly. "But now the domain is collapsing, and the underworld guards have fallen into sleep, we can use anything to open it."

Francis picked up a pebble and insert it into the big keyhole in the stone gate.

Within Francis's expectation, light burst out from the black gate and the gate silently opened for them. Behind the gate, there was bitter and painful groans and moans, and the wind came was freezing cold.

Francis did not hesitate and took the initiative to walk in. Lucien followed him in full alert. However, it wasn't until a minute later when Ramiro finally came in.

Standing in the overwhelming darkness, Ramiro hurriedly explained. "I've cast a couple of spells, in case the power of death is too strong."

Ramiro was extremely cautious about stepping into the domain of the Lord of Underworld. No one knew that if the ninth-circle archmage was here or not.

Francis did not say anything. He turned to walk to the next gate dimly lit up by luminous moss.

Suddenly, distorted pale faces emerged in the darkness, men and women, young and old. Floating in the air, they aimed directly towards Francis, Lucien, and Ramiro full of hatred and viciousness.

Dark haze rose from Francis's body and filled in the space. The pale faces immediately disappeared silently as soon as the haze reached them.

"The place is fading, and the specters are out of restrictions now." Francis reminded them.

He took out a silver coin and opened the next gate.

Then, the three of them run into all kinds of low-rank specters as well as mummies. With Francis, a radiant knight, walking in the front, the specters imposed no big threat to them at all. From time to time, Francis would miss a few, but level-four knight Leviathan and level-four priest Anheuse were able to handle them.

When the sixth stone gate opened, what was behind the gate was no longer pure darkness, but dim bright fog.

In the fog, many figures were moaning and writhing on the ground; many were starving to death, too weak to cry out; many were crying in fear, but were sent to the altar by the indifferent and cold crowd; some were being torn apart into pieces by beasts; some were killed by the fights between gods and priests; some were drowned to death because of the flood summoned by gods; some were dying on battlefields during wars; some were being slaved, being killed by beasts to please the nobles…

In the fog was real hell depicting the pain that ordinary people were suffering from in this world.

"Let's go. We pray in piety, so we won't be influenced." Ramiro inherited part of Anheuse's memory and knew what to do now.

Walking in the haze, Lucien could hear sounds of sharp screaming in agony. The thin, pale arms trying to grab him in desperation were like spreading tree branches. However, the sound and the scene did not cause a stir in Lucien's mind. The arms directly went through Lucien's body as if they were just shadows.

When they got out of the haze, two stone gates emerged in the front. Both of them were dispersing.

"Two ?" Francis asked Ramiro.

Ramiro shook his head, "No idea. But we'd better hurry. Let's take different paths here. You're the most powerful one among us, Francis, so you take one yourself. Leviathan and I will take the other."

Like a wolf stalking a lamb, Ramiro knew that his opportunity was coming.

"Alright. Let's split and hurry up, or we wouldn't be able to search all the places." Francis agreed and went into the gate on the right.

Ramiro turned to look at Leviathan with a smile on his face. "Let's go."

"Sure." Lucien smiled back.

Behind the left gate was a corridor alined with stone pillars. The winding corridor extended into the far side. It was empty and silent, the perfect place for killing.

Seeing that Leviathan had lowered his alert, Ramiro was ready to take action after passing around the corner, when they were far from Francis.

After several minutes of walking, they turned right along the corridor. There were rooms along both sides, but still nothing around.

This was such a good place for Ramiro.

A ferocious smile appeared on Ramiro's face as he examined Lucien from behind.

Chapter 480: Twists and Turns

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

All the previous events had eliminated Ramiro's suspicion towards Leviathan and made him believe that Leviathan only had the equal to that of a level-four knight. Yet although now in Ramiro's eyes Leviathan was of no threat to him at all, he was still being very cautious. He was, after all, a high-ranking night watcher that had secretly assassinated and directly slain many powerful heresies. Except for the mysterious smile on his face, his behavior revealed none of his inner thoughts, for he needed to make sure that Leviathan would not be alerted so that he could kill Leviathan within one single strike.

Ramiro's guts and organs started melting into a pile of muddy flesh. Soon, Leviathan would be completely wrapped by the flesh, digested, and absorbed. To reduce the possible risk, Ramiro had decided to devour Leviathan directly without wasting time on interrogating him.

"Leviathan" did not sense the danger at all.

His ankle bending slightly, Ramiro was about to jump onto Leviathan. However, at this very moment, Francis' cheerful voice came from behind.

"Here you are!"

Damn it, it was the second time! Ramiro stopped himself in the last second, stumbling. Ramiro followed the momentum and turned around, his pace a bit pale. "What, Francis? You scared me there!"

Lucien was also a bit startled. "Anything wrong with that side?"

Francis grinned. "Behind the gate is the Bridge of Soul. Both the Styx and the Bridge have dispersed severely and were in a terrifying state of voidness. I can't pass."

"Then we really have to hurry up. The same thing might happen to this side as well," said Lucien as he signalled the two to hurry.

Francis nodded and again walked in the front. Ramiro followed them, feeling quite frustrated. He wondered if his blessing had come to the end. It seemed that his luck had started to leave.

He prayed in his mind, hoping the proper chance that he could absorb Leviathan would come.

In front of the corridor, darkness resumed again. A grayish-white river where countless bodies and bones were floating appeared, winding to the unknown far end.

"Is this the Styx?" Lucien examined it curiously.

Ramiro nodded, "Yes. Every drop of the Styx came from a bitter and sorrowful soul. Even the gods would become crazy after touching it, the Lord of Underworld is the only exception."

There was a canoe beside the riverbank, but the canoe-man had disappeared because of the collapsion of the entire realm.

"How was the realm formed? Consciousness and matter, which comes the first?" Asked Francis in the tone of a philosopher. The person he was asking was, of course, the experienced initiator Anheuse.

The first question was also a question shared by Lucien. He first thought that a realm was something like a sorcerer's demiplane, but the collapse of a legendary sorcerer's demiplane was not caused by the sorcerer's death, but rather the destruction of the cognitive world.

Ramiro answered with a cold smile. "The power of faith gathered, and gods form godhoods from the power. The remnant power formed the realm depending on the god and the godhood. The power of a god can be greatly improved when the god is in His own domain. When a god falls, if his godhood had nowhere to go, or if the other god who takes away the godhood is unwilling to maintain the realm, the space will gradually collapse. The escaped power of faith will follow the guidance of godhood and come to it."

The godhood with nowhere to go to would dissipate gradually.

"No wonder you are the initiator, Anheuse." Francis smiled and stepped onto the canoe.

Ramiro thought to himself that the real Anheuse would have never articulated the idea as clear as he did.

When Leviathan and Anheuse were both on board, the canoe set off. On the surface of Styx, the canoe moved silently as if it was on a mirror.

When they reached the other side and got off the boat, they saw the magnificent palace enveloped in a haze right in front of them. There were huge stone columns supporting the giant domes. Everything consisting of the palace looked very real, not like those things they saw earlier, which looked illusory.

"This is the place where the Lord of Underworld lived. Five thousand ordinary men were sent here and labored to death as sacrifices. It's quite something that the Lord of Underworld even moved such a huge palace from the Death Valley to this place," said Ramiro.

Both Lucien and Francis had heard of this before, as it was recorded in the doctrine of the Lord of Underworld.

In such a primitive religion, fear was always the most commonly used method for ruling followers, and thus sacrifice was among the most frequently mentioned words. Some false gods, especially those who were greatly influenced by their godhoods, were obsessed with the blood rituals and live sacrifices, including the previous Lord of Fire and Destruction, Avando. However, after becoming the Lord of Redemption, Ell had greatly calmed down and had never shown this tendency again.

"This palace is huge. Let's go separate," suggested Ramiro again.

Francis agreed. They still had to save time for getting out. As for what they would find in the palace, Francis would be able to check them secretly later using his powers.

Lucien also agreed as he was seeking for Adamantine, Mythril, Orichalcum, Ice Iron, Soul Stone, and Meteoric Iron to refine the alloy unique to the Will of Elements for fixing his Holm prize rings. Of course, those materials for fixing his medal, staff, belt, and gloves were also his targets.

Pushing open the palace gate, Francis walked straight to the front, Lucien turned left, and Ramiro entered the left side of the palace.

A while later, Ramiro secretly came back to the main hall. He cast an alert look at the direction chosen by Francis. After making sure that there was no sign of Francis coming back, Ramiro's sullen face disappeared in the darkness.

Silently moving in the darkness like a shadow, Ramiro was approaching his target.

A radiant knight's velocity was amazing. Pass the corridor and the rooms, Ramiro soon saw Leviathan, who was searching every corner of this place cautiously with the sword in his hands.

At the end of the corridor, there was a black metal gate with a white skull and a river of blood drawn on it. The death power on it was almost gone after the falling of the Lord of Underworld.

What Lucien was holding was just a common steel sword, given by Ell as an award when Lucien left Politown.

Staring at the gate, Lucien grabbed the sword tight with both of his hands and hacked at the white skull in the middle. Then Lucien dropped the sword, letting the sword taking away the rest of the death power on the gate.

When the steel sword dropped on the floor, it sounded like a rotten piece of wood.

Lucien pushed open the gate, and finally saw the treasure left by the Lord of Underworld: Most of it was gold, silver, and gems, dazzling under the candlelight. In the middle, there were different pieces of metal, exotic items, and divine weapons.

Lucien saw Mythril and Soul Stone at first glance. Meanwhile, he became more alert and spread out his spiritual power, for he had no idea whether or not there were still any guards around. Also, it was possible that Francis and Anheuse would kill him to take away all the treasures, especially Anheuse, who seemed to be a bit strange.

Standing behind in the darkness, Ramiro thought that Leviathan must have been shocked seeing such abundant wealth. It was a great opportunity for him!

The opportunity that he had been waiting for so long!

Ramiro sprinted out from the darkness!

However, the minute when he jumped out, Ramiro sensed a stranger coming from the other side of the corridor.

Damn! Ramiro almost went nuts. It was just such bad luck!

However, he had no better options. Ramiro rushed into the treasury and sent a secret, silent message to Lucien,

"Hide! Someone's coming!"

Lucien had sensed Ramiro's presence when Ramiro was about to jump on him, as well as the stranger. Following Ramiro, Lucien went into the treasury and hid in the corner where nothing could reflect him.

Half a minute later, an elegant and fine-curved figure secretly sneaked in. Lucien saw the reflection on a piece of metal: It was a gorgeous, goddess-like beauty. Each of her movements was full of bewitching charm, but somehow Lucien felt the lady quite familiar.

He was a bit confused, as he did not remember seeing this lady before.

The gorgeous lady walked to the other side of the treasury. Then light like the first rays of the morning sun poured out from her body, and a secret gate was exposed.

However, there was nothing behind the secret gate.

"It's gone? Didn't He obtain a powerful thing from where Solna River originated…" Murmured the beauty to herself in a low, sexy voice.

Both Lucien and Ramiro recognized her at the same time and felt the godhood possessed by the lady. She was Asin, the God of Moon! How come He became female? It seemed that Asin had got some new godhood related to beauty and morning glory.

Since Asin was about level seven, and both Lucien and Ramiro had to avoid showing their true power to each other, they chose not to jump out. They watched Asin casually take away a couple of divine items and entering into another secret tunnel. It seemed that she could come back at any time for the rest of the treasure.

After a while, Ramiro walked out and smiled. "I was following Asin."

Of course, Lucien did not believe him at all.

Seeing the serious look on Leviathan's face, Ramiro grinned. "You don't believe me? It's okay. No one is gonna interrupt me now."

Thank God. After three interrupted attempts, he could finally eat Leviathan in!

Ramiro's body started wriggling like there were no bones in it.

Lucien instantly recognized who he was. He forcedly gave up the plan of using Confinement and Maze, because Ramiro could get out at any time by self-explosion.

Like a pile of muddy flesh, Ramiro jumped towards Lucien, leaving Lucien nowhere to retreat.

Suddenly, Ramiro's mind paused a bit as he saw a flash of green light in Leviathan's eyes. Then he felt that his level of magic resistance had been greatly reduced.

Resistance Reduction?

He was a sorcerer?!

Ramiro saw dim light on Leviathan's robe forming a deadly grey ray shooting directly toward him.

Without any preparation, Ramiro was shot by the very fast ray. He felt that his body was full of this negative energy and his power had been greatly reduced by at least one level.

Weakening Ray? He was the ninth-circle archmage?

Damn it!

Ramiro had fallen into great depression and desperation. For a second, he even started doubting the God of Truth.

Why did his Lord not warn him of the great danger, and why had the blessing abandoned him?

However, he soon found an explanation:

He had been iterrupted for three times. The God of Truth had warned him for three times. It was his arrogance that blinded his eyes!

Chapter 481: The Strange Encounter

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lucien Evans! He was Lucien Evans!

Although Ramiro's power had been reduced to level seven, he still recognized who this young man was as Lucien did not even try to conceal his magic waves. Ramiro had a much deeper understanding of what kind of danger he was now facing..

After twelve seconds, his power would probably be further reduced by one level. If that was the case, Ramiro would have no chance at all fighting against Lucien Evans who had numerous powerful magic items. Ramiro knew that Lucien Evans had a powerful magic staff inlaid with Sun Stone that could cast Confinement. If Lucien Evans got the chance to curse his soul or intervene with his destiny, it would be the end of Ramiro!

What was worse to Ramiro was that it was not his first time fighting with Lucien Evans, and Lucien Evans had for sure seen how he exploded but still survived. Now that his biggest secret weapon had been revealed to Lucien, Lucien would definitely take precautions against it.

Lucien Evans cast two magic spells successively. Seeing this, Ramiro believed that Lucien Evans was in the middle of the buffering time for the next round of casting.

This was the best opportunity for him to turn the tables. The longer he waited, the more dangerous it would be!

He had to make a decision, right now.

Lots of uncontrolled thoughts flashed through Ramiro's mind. But within a second, Ramiro, an experienced fighter, made the best decision based on the current situation — to explode himself!

Although it had been his second time exploding himself in the recent two to three months, although he had not recovered from the last self-explosion, although this might leave his body damaged for a long time and prevent him from reaching the next level, Ramiro still made the decision! Hesitation would be the most powerful weapon he gave to his own enemy! If he died, his body would be damaged forever and he would never be able to reach the next level.

Bang! The deafening explosion turned the gold, silver, and gems nearby into ashes. The horrible power of the shock waves made a violent dash towards Lucien!

Ramiro did not expect that this would kill Lucien Evans.

But this would definitely interrupt and break off Lucien's next spell in preparation!

Ramiro's will seemed to fuse with this great explosion.

Lucien's buffering time for casting was a two to three times shorter than most sixth-circle sorcerers, as he had adopted the Wave-Particle Dualism meditation method, which was closer to the truth of the world. Also, more importantly, one of the first two spells he just threw at Ramiro was only fourth circle and the other was from the Immortal Throne robe. Therefore, it only took Lucien about a second to recover.

Ramiro expected that Lucien Evans would turn to cast a defense spell to protect himself against the explosion. It would win him a very short period of time for transferring his soul.

When overwhelming blast waves rushed from all the directions, self-defense was always the first choice.

Lucien recovered earlier than Ramiro expected and he was indeed about to activate Energy Absorption Field.

However, at this time, Lucien recalled what he had been warning himself repeatedly,

"If I can't kill or confine Ramiro, he will tell the Church who I am. If that happens, I'll definitely have no more chance to observe how a god is produced this closely, and I'll be in great trouble if a Grand Cardinal decides to target at me."

"I cannot let Ramiro get out of my control. I have to kill him or confine him!"

The consequences of letting Ramiro escape flashed through Lucien's mind. Therefore, instead of protecting himself, Lucien seized the chance to activate one of his magic items.

A crystal-clear ray shot out from Lucien's left chest and right into the dusty blast waves in freezing temperature.

Meanwhile, the horrible explosion hit Lucien, and he disappeared right on spot.

The next second when Lucien appeared again, he was already standing beside the entrance of the secret tunnel, with a layer of energy shield covering him.

Since Lucien first activated the magic item, the timing of opening the shield was slightly delayed. Lucien's face turned pale, and there was blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He had to thank the protection from the Immortal Throne robe he was wearing, and also, the Short Distance Teleportation that removed him from the first and most powerful round of blast, or now he would have been severely injured again just like the time when he was thrown into this realm.

When the dust was settling down, Lucien took out a tube of Water Song and drank it all. His face now looked less pale.

Because of the freezing effect of Silent Coffin, the power of the blast didn't last long. It faded away completely after several seconds. On the ground was a layer of dust that was once gold, silver, and gems. Many divine items and materials were also destroyed during the explosion.

As Lucien examined his surroundings cautiously, he saw a crystal lying at the spot where Ramiro exploded. In the crystal, there was a strange shadow.

Lucien picked up the crystal using Mage Hand. He was sure that this was part of the Silent Coffin which had not yet completely melted.

When Lucien took a closer look at the shadow inside the crystal, he saw the pale face of Ramiro. The look on the face was rigid and hollow as if the face had been frozen in there for over thousands of years.

It seemed that both Ramiro's body and soul were very special. Before when Lucien cast the spell, Silent Coffin, neither one's body nor soul could survive in the end under the dissolving power. Lucien sealed this crystal piece using magic and then took out his Morning Light crystal ball. Through the crystal ball, Lucien tried to see if he could find any connections to the face frozen in the crystal and thus locate any separate flesh that Ramiro might use for his resurrection.

Lucien once saw Ramiro explode with his own eyes, and then he saw Ramiro alive right in front of him. There was no doubt that Ramiro had his own way to come back to life. Lucien guessed that it was because of Ramiro's creepy self-division and reproduction power.

Lucien did not know whether directly wiping off Ramiro's remaining soul would thoroughly eliminate him or not, therefore, he decided to find what was left by Ramiro first.

Ramiro's resurrection did not rely on any magic rites, so there must be some restrictions on space or time. Thus, Lucien believed that Ramiro's way of resurrection should be different from a lich's phylactery or Felipe's improved Life Hiding spell, which could allow its owner to resurrect regardless of the place and time death occurred.

Of course, if Ramiro's blood power was indeed powerful enough to exceed the restrictions of time and space, or if Ramiro's remaining body part was hidden in the Holy City Lance, then Lucien would have no other choices but to run for his life after leaving the realm of the Lord of Underworld.

In the crystal ball, there were two light spots, connected by a faintly discernible line.

It seemed like Ramiro's body part for resurrection was just by the entrance of the realm. No wonder it took Ramiro a while before entering here — He was setting up the things needed for resurrection. Lucien was quite surprised. Putting aside the crystal, Lucien hurried up to collect the remaining materials and divine items.

From the line shown in the crystal ball, Lucien knew that the resurrection had not started yet, because he had frozen Ramiro's soul.

Lucien collected more Adamantine, Mythril, Soul Stone, and Blood Steel than he thought. Although the Meteoric Iron left was not a lot, it was enough for Lucien. Also, Lucien found a precious flower called Annocheer for fixing his Health Belt. Now, all he needed was some Ice Iron.

Suddenly, the entire palace started shaking so hard that Lucien almost fell to the ground. Black miasma poured in, dissolving everything.

What did Francis do?

The domain had started breaking down!

The situation suddenly became very dangerous. Lucien hurriedly turned to his Host Star of Destiny to find a way out using prophecy.

The stars changed the order, and the light of the crystal ball pointed to the secret tunnel Asin went into.

Lucien was a bit surprised to see that the secret tunnel was not for digging into the realm but rather the way to exist. But now there was no time for him to think about other plans. Casting Speed on himself, he dashed into the tunnel.

Along the tunnel, there were specters trapped inside the walls. The distorted faces extended their pale arms, trying to grab Lucien, but Lucien was too fast for them. The specters left behind were soon devoured by the collapsion.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a hall, where a headless death knight rushed out directly at Lucien. The realm was collapsing, and the death knight had gone mad.

Lucien pointed at the knight with his right hand, and a jade-green ray shot out.

The death knight was too insane to dodge, and the green ray hit the death knight right in front of his chest. Instantly, its body dissolved into the tiny green light spots and disappeared.

The sixth-circle spell, Dissociation!

It seemed that the guards here had also been greatly weakened as the realm collapsed. Lucien wondered how Asin left this place. But since Asin even knew the existence of the secret chamber, He must have been well-prepared.

At the bottom of the palace, there was a huge black gate. The gate was so tightly closed as if nothing could open it.

Chasing behind Lucien was the overwhelming black miasma like waves, quietly devouring everything in its way.

Lucien started chanting silently. The invisible magic waves reached the gate and distorted it.

The part of the gate which had affected became translucent like it was a piece of black glass.

Lucien ran up to it and hit the glass with his right shoulder, and the gate collapsed like real glass!

The black pieces fell onto the ground, and Lucien used all of his strength and jumped out.

The sixth-circle spell, Dulag's Glass!

Lucien then felt the coldness of river water.

He looked back and saw that the realm of the Lord of Underworld had disappeared completely. He somehow had this feeling and took out the crystal containing Ramiro's soul and saw that the piece of flesh inside was wriggling, and the soul was swelling, as if it was going to explode.

Lucien was quite shocked and became quite anxious.

Not knowing what was going on, Lucien cast a spell named Sea Cloak and swam towards the place he located indicated in the crystal ball.

He could leave no chance to Ramiro!

The place was not far away, but before Lucien arrived, the crystal piece had melted, together with the soul and the flesh.

Coming to a huge rock in the river, Lucien approached the bank in great caution, knowing that Ramiro might have come back to life again.

Pushing the water plants aside, the look on Lucien's blanked out. He did not see Ramiro here. Instead, there was a young girl. Her blond hair was tied into a ponytail on the right and hung down onto her shoulder. Beside her was a long sword on black fire, and she was holding a strange-shaped tree branch, on which there was a dark piece of meat.

She was roasting the meat on the black fire of the sword.

"What are you doing here?" A strange feeling of intimacy made Lucien ask this question.

The young girl turned around. Her scarlet eyes looked at Lucien seriously as if Lucien just asked a question that was too obvious.

"I'm making beef jerky."

Chapter 482: Hiding

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

"… Beef jerky…" Lucien's expression uncontrollably twisted a bit. If his prophecy did not go wrong, that dark piece of meat was exactly a part of Ramiro's body which he prepared in advance for his resurrection. However, it had now been roasted by this young girl.

Yet somehow, Lucien did not feel disgusted, only amused.

Lucien felt that Ramiro was still lucky to some degree. In the middle of the wilderness, his flesh could have been taken away by a jackal. Comparatively speaking, being made into a piece of beef jerky did not seem as bad.

The scarlet-eyed girl picked up the tree branch and munched on the meat. It did not take her long before swallowing it down. Then she patted on her belly, looking still a bit not fully satisfied.

"I'm starving…"

Lucien was about to prevent the girl from eating random things she found in the wilderness like this, but seeing the young girl's good appetite, he did not know what to say.

Blond hair, scarlet eyes, genderless beauty, and the fact that she could easily digest the flesh of a radiant knight… Lucien believed that he knew who this young girl was.

"Alterna?" He asked cautiously.

If the young girl was indeed Alterna, it would explain why Lucien felt the strange sense of intimacy and why he felt that someone was watching him before.

The blond girl stood up, using the long sword wrapped with the black fire as her walking stick. She stared at Lucien as if she had known him for a quite long time and complained seriously.

"I'm starving."

"What do you need? Blood? A radiant knight's flesh?" Lucien wondered if Alterna was still during the period of recovery after the fall.

Hearing Lucien's question, the young girl frowned slightly and recalled the taste of the 'beef jerky' she made. Then she shook her head. "Don't like it."

Lucien was again speechless, although he was facing probably the most powerful existence in this world. He asked in patience, "then what do you want? What can make you recover?"

The blond-haired girl looked both indifferent and serious. "I want the cheese you confined."

Her red eyes lit up in eagerness.

Cheese? When did he confine cheese? Lucien was confused. But soon he realized what happened. "Did you kill the Lord of Underworld?"

Lucien had so far only used Confinement once in this world, and that was for restraining the Lord of Underworld.

The girl nodded elegantly. "Yes. I want cheese like that."

"So you need godhoods? Any kind of godhood? Or only those related to the Silver Moon, Death, and Resurrection? How much power do you still have? How long can it still sustain?" Lucien had basically made sure that the young girl was Alterna, the Silver Moon, and he hurriedly threw all the questions out.

Alterna snuffled a bit, and her body became a bit transparent. "Only the cheese like that."

Then her body started looking more translucent and wavy. Her red eyes were half-closed.

"I need some sleep. Watch out for the Single-eyed."

Then she turned into a sharp flash of silver moonlight and sneaked into Lucien's left hand before Lucien even realized it.

Lucien felt the will of Alterna — profound, boundless, and almighty. For a second, Alterna's will overwhelmed Lucien, and his mind blanked out. When everything in his mind settled down and he came back to his full consciousness, Lucien saw that there was a mark of the silver moon on the back his left hand. But soon the moon mark also dimmed and melted into his skin, vanishing finally as if nothing ever happened.

Lucien took a deep breath as he was shocked by how a demigod existed in this world. Alterna was now living in his own blood and flesh! This could never be achieved by any existing substances. However, if the form of a demigod was only soul, will, or spiritual imprint, why did the young girl, Alterna, look so real and how could she digest flesh?

Focalizing his spiritual power, Lucien carefully checked his left hand. After a while, he finally sensed the almighty will with the horrible power settling in his left hand.

Lucien tried to wake Alterna to know more, but there was no response at all.

Therefore, Lucien had to make his own guesses:

It seemed that Alterna was very weak right now. The fall had severely damaged Alterna and She would not be able to recover in a short period of time. Sleeping was Alterna's current method for sustainment.

It should have been a while since Alterna started watching the Lord of Underworld, or Alterna would not have been able to know the new divine realm of the Lord of Underworld. Perhaps, Alterna was the "thing" mentioned by Asin that was found and brought back by the Lord of Underworld. However, the fact that Alterna did not immediately consume "the tasty cheese" indicated that Alterna was either too weak to kill the Lord of Underworld or that She had been waiting for the chance to kill Him with one quick strike so that the attention of the other false gods wouldn't be attracted.

The latter seemed more reasonable as it should be Alterna who unlocked Confinement and killed the Lord of Underworld in the end. Therefore, Lucien guesses that after taking in the godhood of Death, and by falling into sleep for a while, Alterna could more or less accumulate some fighting power. However, if Alterna wanted a faster recovery or even to resume the power of the demigod, She would need abundant similar godhoods. Then, if Alterna could find the mysterious existence from the World of Souls and take in Its power, She should be able to recover in the shortest period of time.

Lucien knew that as long as the silver moon was still hanging up in the sky, the God of Silver Moon would always be able to return from "Nothingness". However, it would take too long, even too long for the eternal God of Silver Moon.

But who was the Single-eyed? Lucien frowned, thinking over Alterna's last words.

Suddenly, Lucien looked up at the direction where the Temple of War sat.

Lucien remembered that the statue of Antanas, the Lord of War, was a middle-aged, single-eyed man.

Was Alterna talking about the Lord of War? Had the Lord of Underworld told the Lord of War the situation of Alterna? It made sense, but… but there was no need for Alterna to warn Lucien about this. Lucien himself would never go and find Antanas to bring great trouble to himself. If Ell wanted to kill Antanas, he would always send Francis and Jacob first to the front.

Also, vampires were always proud and even arrogant. As their Primordial Ancestor, Alterna should be the same. Even if Alterna was now severely injured and might take caution in Her actions, Lucien did not believe that Alterna would admit it to him.

Unless there was a bigger story hiding underneath… The look on Lucien's face was very serious, and he believed that he had got the rough answer.

Shaking his head, Lucien calmed himself down. He stared at his left hand and wondered if from now on he should call this hand "the Left Hand of God".

At this time, the look on Lucien's face suddenly changed. He immediately activated the mask and turned himself into a fish hiding among the water plants.

From the almost fully-collapsed realm, a cluster of black haze flew out.

It was Francis.

Francis's face looked very pale. It looked like he was severely injured. However, he also looked very excited. Maybe it was because he had found something important in the palace.

Looking back at the ruins and checking around carefully, Francis shook his head and sighed. "Such a pity that the talented Leviathan died in there."

Obviously, Francis thought that both Leviathan and Anheuse had died in the collapsion.

Lucien was not planning on reuniting with Francis at all. After the fight against Ramiro and running into Alterna, Lucien had decided to give up the identity of Leviathan and put himself into the crowd, so he could hide better. The plan on watching how a god evolved had to be abandoned from now on.

Now that night watcher Ramiro had gone missing, and Ell had taken in the godhood of the God of Moon, the Church would very likely send more powerful priests here, probably even including a Grand Cardinal. Then, if Lucien was still one the apostles of Ell, he would definitely be closely investigated. What was worse was that, if Prince Dracula had also arrived here, there might be a connection between him and Alterna within a certain distance. That would put Lucien under great risk!

Therefore, Lucien decided to take the opportunity and hide in the crowd to be safe.

However, simply hiding would not work for Lucien for too long. The more hungry Alterna became, the more likely problems would occur. Also, the cities and villages were still too small for Lucien to hide safely under the investigation from a legendary like Dracula. Lucien knew that his following step of the plan would be turning the current situation into a big stir when the timing was proper, big enough to catch the Congress's attention. Once he could come into contact with the Congress of Magic again, he would be safe.

Even if the Congress would not be able to locate Lucien over such a great distance, once there were lots of night watchers and radiant knights chasing after him, Lucien would be able to catch one and get the information of which areas were under the control of the Congress through harsh investigation.

Facing the current circumstance and the underlying risks, Lucien temporarily gave up without hesitation his observation of how Ell grew into a true god.

After confirming that Francis had indeed left, Lucien turned him into a common man and sneaked into the city of Husum. With the help of magic, he became a legal resident of the city.

...

"Did you hear that? A few days ago, there were black, grey, and white waves gushing out in Solna River. In the waves, there were monsters that don't die! Rotten monsters!" Said a white-haired old man mysteriously to a few strangers in the early evening.

"Really?" Asked the strangers. Their life was quite dull in most cases, and thus they were especially interested in this kind of news and legends.

The old man said with great certainty, "I was told by someone else, but it was the priest of the God of Love the Beauty who saw it with his own eyes! Also, there was the true silver moon at the bottom of the river, not a reflection!"

"Which part of the river?" Asked a tough man who laboured on the docks.

The old man looked around and lowered his voice. "The part beside the Temple of War…"

The short man gasped. "Was it the Lord of Redemption? After taking away the godhood of the God of Moon, he's coming back for the Lord of War?!"

The old man said alertly, "maybe."

A while later, the old man found an excuse and hurriedly left to avoid attracting too much attention.

In the dark corner, the old man turned into an ordinary-looking man. It was Lucien, who had been hiding in the city of Husum.

Chapter 483: Who Is Behind

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lucien, who now looked just like an ordinary man, walked along Solna River to the slum, where many secret altars were located.

Those false gods including the God of Storm and the Mother God of the Earth were unwilling to give up this rich and prosperous source of believers just like this, thus they had left their secret preachers here. Lucien had been looking for them, in an attempt to find out how these false gods were doing, and thus he could infer how much Ell and Francis had progressed.

Lucien had been spreading out the story, half true and half fake, for over half a month. From today, Lucien was going to stop and leave the rumors to ferment on their own. The merchants and traders would carry the words to the rest of the places in this world. Those who were paying attention would notice.

Lucien planned to wait patiently from now on, waiting for a chance to get out of this dangerous situation.

Lucien felt the moist evening wind on his face coming from Solna River. At nightfall, the air had become cooler.

Suddenly, his left hand twitched uncontrollably. Lucien's head buzzed, and he felt coldness climbing up from his lower back.

Lucien was very concerned. This had not been the first time. And it was getting more and more frequent these days.

Lucien had thought that it was because Alterna was about to wake up after the half month's sleep or was hungry, and he was about to try to find a relevant godhood to feed Alterna. Yet after the repeated twitches today, he realized that the threatening coldness came from himself!

Lucien wondered if Alterna was trying to remind him something. Maybe Alterna had found something wrong with his body after sneaking into his left hand. Was it because there was something imbalanced between his body and soul?

No matter what, Lucien knew that the problem was from himself. He was very concerned, as he was well aware that there were countless cursing spells in the main material world!

He had to figure this out tonight.

Lucien put aside all his concerns and walked into the slum wearing his linen robe. This time, he disguised himself as a secret follower of the Mother God of earth.

"For your prayers?" Said a pauper walking past him in a low voice. The pauper cast a look at Lucien and showed him the direction.

Lucien whispered. "Yes, I'm looking for Priest Angrist."

Following the way the pauper showed, Lucien walked down the shabby street and ran into a few more followers, who further directed him to an ordinary-looking mud hut.

Lucien touched his face, the face that did not belong to him. It felt nice to have a face that was recognized by the other followers — The first time when he came here, he had to use a series of mind spells to make his way.

Pushing open the door of the mud hut, Lucien saw a skinny old man who was kneeling on the floor and kissing the ground.

"Priest Angrist, sorry for my interrupting," said Lucien politely.

Angrist's wrinkled face was written with a big smile, "don't mind it. I am very glad to hear that two false gods have fallen."

Since the churches were now preaching secretly, the number of potential followers had been greatly reduced. As a result, the conflict between the six churches had become harsh and direct, and the relationship between local priests deteriorated quickly.

"What? Two false gods have fallen?" Lucien was truly shocked.

Angrist stood up. "When I was praying earlier this morning, the Mother God sent me the message, but I thought I misinterpreted it. Yet half an hour ago, it was finally confirmed that the statue of the God of Storm and the God of Love had cracked, and their priests had also lost the revered power."

"The Lord of Redemption did it?" Lucien was surprised to see how fast Ell and Francis were taking actions.

Angrist nodded, grinning. "Yes."

Seeing Angrist's attitude, Lucien suddenly realized that some of the six false gods had betrayed Their alliance. At least, the Mother God of Earth sure had paid allegiance to Ell. The falling of the two false gods was the proof of the Mother God of Earth's loyalty to Ell, or Ell and Francis would not have made such huge progress already.

"May the Mother bless us," said Lucien.

Angrist drew a cross in front of his chest. "Now we should address Her as 'the Angle of Earth.'"

Angrist's behavior amused Lucien.

Angrist was not planning to hide the news from the followers. In such tough days, they needed good news to be exhilarated.

Lucien had expected this. He bowed again, smiling sincerely.

After leaving the slum, Lucien changed his look again in the woods beside the river. In the darkness, he returned to the same slum again from another direction. This time, his target was the secret group of Ell's followers, and his goal was to confirm what he had just been told.

As the previous initiator, Lucien knew the several liaisons in the city of Husum. Lucien got most of his information from them after his faked death.

When he was very close to the slum, Lucien heard someone pacing back and forth in the corner. Lucien turned his sight slightly and saw through the shadow a young man wearing a long linen robe.

No, it was a woman. Lucien's eyes slightly squinted. The woman in disguise triggered Lucien's interest.

Lucien had been secretly looking for suspicious outsiders recently, hoping to find a night watcher to get the information he needed. Obviously, the woman was the very target that Lucien would pay special attention to.

Lucien kept walking. He did not stop until he had entered the slum and found a dark corner where no one was present. Lucien then calmed down and cast True Seeing, then he changed his look again and walked out of the slum, pretending that he was in a hurry.

When he returned to the corner where the woman stood, Lucien pretended that he was just taking a casual glance, but his pupils were now deep and dark.

True Seeing was a powerful sixth-circle Astrology spell that allowed its caster to see through illusions, invisibilities, transformations, darkness, obscurity, reflections, secret doors, and a few special dimensions, and its validity depended on the caster's power. The woman's rank was much lower than that of Lucien, so her disguise was easily seen through by Lucien. She turned out to be one of Lucien's acquaintances.

She was Sophia.

Lucien instantly recognized that the woman who looked as innocent and gorgeous as a fairy was Princess Sophia of the Holy Heilz Empire. As soon as Lucien saw her, he recalled her horribly powerful father, Rudolf II, the legendary who undoubtedly had partially touched the secret of the seven ancient demons and primitive gods. It gave Lucien a headache

Thus, when Lucien first recognized Sophia, he immediately gave up the idea of capturing her and interrogating her on the information about the Congress of Magic's whereabouts. He had learned his lesson last time in the underground palace: It was possible that the mysterious Rudolf II had projected himself on his daughter.

Lucien slightly shook his head and sped up to leave.

Having no idea that she just got lucky, Sophia was still pacing in the corner. Feeling disgusted, she did not want to step into the smelly slum at all.

It was not long before Lucien ran into his second acquaintance after he left the slum. When the man walked out of the woods, Lucien recognized him immediately.

It was Francis!

And Francis walked to the corner where Sophia was at.

Lucien wondered since when Francis and Sophia had hooked up with each other. Lucien's wondering slowed down his pace, and Francis instantly looked over. Lucien had to restrain his thoughts and keep walking, pretending he was simply passing by. At this time, another man wearing a long linen robe walked out of the slum. He seemed to be gloomy and tyrannical.

Francis kept staring at Lucien's back until Lucien had walked out far away. Then, he finally looked back and nodded to the man and Sophia.

"Good, both of you're on time. Let's go to another place."

...

After walking for a while, Lucien turned himself into a tiny river fly and flew back to the corner. However, Francis, Sophia, and the man were all gone, and there was no clue left.

Lucien sighed and canceled his plan on visiting Ell's follower today. He then returned to the place where he lived in the civilian zone.

Closing the windows and turning on the alert magic circles, Lucien ruled out all his thoughts on Francis and Sophia, focusing on only himself. He had to find out where this feeling of freezing coldness came from, or he would be very concerned day and night!

Since the feeling of coldness was very likely to have something to do with the power of evilness and death. Lucien decided to give it a try.

His body was instantly covered with a layer of silver moonlight, and his muscles bulked moderately, forming nice curves. The aura around him became oppressive and tense.

Sixth-circle spell, Baler's Transformation!

The spell was produced by the sorcerers in the ancient Magic Empire reflecting on their multiple failed attempts on blood powers combination. Baler's Transformation could transform a sorcerer into a knight of the same level in a period of time, and the power of the knight depended on the caster's own bloodline. Right now, no matter in terms of his strength, agility, velocity, or his willpower and the ability of dematerialization into moonlight, Lucien was now a real level-six radiant knight.

He took Pale Justice out from his magic pouch, took a few deep breathes, and slowly lifted the sword. But this time, his target was himself.

The ordinary-looking sword contained dreadful power. Before it reached Lucien's forehead, Lucien's heart was already beating very fast, and there was a power within his body that was urging him to stop immediately.

At this time, a feeling of coldness and repression came up from Lucien's left hand and refreshed his mind, strengthening Lucien's willpower so that he was no longer affected by the deep fear. With great determination, Lucien put the blade against his own forehead and cut in inch by inch.

A sharp pain came from Lucien's forehead, but he did not stop.

Suddenly, Pale Justice lit up in a metallic color. The power coming from the sword was more than warm and determined. Lucien heard a bitter scream, and his body and soul suddenly became relaxed.

Lucien instantly stopped cutting in. He could clearly feel the sharp, cold blade on his forehead.

Meanwhile, behind Lucien, a distorted pale human face vapored in the air, screaming in agony.

Someone left this in Lucien's body!

No wonder Ramiro could track Lucien all the way here!

This was by no means a coincidence!

Although Lucien was always very gentle and reserved, he looked quite angry now. Blood dribbled down from his forehead, making him look rather hideous.

The person who did this did not modify Lucien's memory. Maybe the person was afraid of seeing Lucien's many weird and absurd thoughts.

After all, what "the Headcrusher" was thinking was very likely to explode other people's heads at any time.

Chapter 484: Change in the Night.

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The Congress' research in the field of space and time was lacking and had not yet formed a complete theory. Thus, it was impossible for the arcanists of the Congress of Magic to determine where Lucien would be teleported to after the disruption caused by Ramiro would. On top of that, Lucien himself is the Secretive. Due to its special abilities as well as this world's disturbance to long-distance magic and prophecy, Fernando and Hathaway had yet to find him.

Lucien concluded that this surveillance specter had fused with his body and soul before he had entered the Portal to Alternate Realm.

Otherwise, how was the man behind the scenes able to find him before Fernando and the Prophet, and let the wraith posses him before he recovered?

As another expert arcanist in the field of Necromancy, Lucien knew that since this specter could be "executed" by the Pale Justice, then his mentor Fernando must have been able to sense it when they met. Therefore, the wraith must have possessed him sometime after Fernando stepped into the Portal to Alternate Realm and before Lucien was forced into it.

It seemed that the most possible explanation would be that the man behind the scenes did something to Ramiro's body so that when he self-exploded, the specter seized the opportunity and possessed Lucien. The explosion would also help to erase any trace, and since that Lucien had been forced into the Portal to Alternate Realm, even if Hathaway suspected anything, no trace was left to be found.

The man behind the scenes was aware of the exact time that the Portal would remain open. He was also able to let Ramiro carry out the assassination without knowing that he had been possessed. And finally, he is apt at this method of surveillance. Lucien wondered what Thanatos, the Demigod-lich or the Eye of Curse would want to know from him — Fabricating memory or strong hinting could both make Ramiro do things without realizing that they weren't his own decisions.

Pieces of memory flashed in Lucien's mind. He was trying to check if he had missed anything.

Suddenly, it dawned on Lucien:

"When I was passing through the underground ruins of the dwarfs, there was a senior-rank specter from the World of Souls that ambushed me. I had assumed that it was because Rhine's plan had been discovered."

"When Adol was captured by Thanatos and sent to Allyn, he did not have any memories about the fact that Maskelyne and Mr. Rhine were trapped in the World of Souls. I had assumed that Adol did not hold a rank high enough to know about the deeper secrets. Thinking back now, I'm sure I had misjudged the situation then. "

"From the deep memories of that senior-rank specter one could see that, while it loathed Adol, it could only curse him to be cleansed by the Saint Truth. It must be that its rank is lower than that of Adol. Could have been his assistant or subordinate. If even he knew about the plans of Mr Rhine, then Adol must have known about it too."

"If Adol really didn't know anything, then why did the senior-rank specter ambush me? To avenge its master Felipe, whom he described with the word 'dumb?'"

"The two events form a paradox. The best explanation would be that Adol did knew a lot. He knew that Maskelyne and Rhine were trapped in the World of Souls. He also knew how they were related to me, which is what caused him to target me. However, he no longer knew about these things after he was sent to Allyn. Someone must have erased his memory. "

"Considering all these, His Excellency the Eye of Curse is not likely to be the man behind the scenes. As for Thanatos, even if he was not the one committing the act, he at least allowed it to happen. Is he planning to use my connection with Alterna or the mysterious existence of the World of Souls to find Them in advance?"

"No wonder Ramiro came to investigate at Erdo. No wonder he could find Anheuse so quickly. No wonder that he attempted to attack me time and again. That's just way too many coincidences."

Lucien took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. The idea that someone of legendary rank was keeping an eye over him made him feel very uneasy.

Admittedly, other grand arcanists could also be the suspect. If the specter had possessed him before Fernando had passed through the Portal and Fernando did not detect it, then Lucien's deductions would crumble. Hathaway who was guarding the Portal also had enough time and ability to tamper with such things. However, comparatively speaking, these two were very unlikely to have been the culprit.

Given Hathaway's character, her rather average Necromancy, and the bright future ahead of her brought about by "New Alchemy", given the times Lucien spent together with Fernando and the fact that Fernando's character has remained constant for several centuries, Lucien chose to believe them.

Now that Alterna of the Silver Moon has appeared, but neither Thanatos nor the Demigod-lich had acted. Lucien wondered if this meant that their main target was the mysterious existence in the World of Souls?

But Lucien quickly denied this thought. When he first passed through the realm of the Lord of Underworld, Alterna had already noticed him but didn't come out to meet him. Instead, She had entrusted Herself to his care, sleeping inside his hand as She is now. It probably wasn't because She was worried that Lucien would get in the way of her killing the Lord of Underworld though. Now that thinking about it, Alterna could have noticed that someone was spying on Lucien. The collapse of the underworld realm rendered the surveillance temporarily ineffective, and Alterna then suppressed the specter before showing up in Her true form. Otherwise, She would have hidden with that "beef jerky" and Lucien would have never been able to find her."

Lucien felt a chill down his spine once this thought occurred to him. It wasn't because the specter still lived, but out of genuine fear. He had recklessly slain the specter. The legendary that sent it must have noticed.

Lucien immediately jumped straight out of the window. He could only hope that the legendary is hiding in a faraway place in fear of alerting the silver moon and the World of Souls.

Lucien found himself in a gloomy forest. However, with his radiant knight transformation, he passed through it in a jiffy. He then jumped into a river and transformed into a fish, and swan with the currents for a while.

After a while, Lucien came up to the shore and used magic to erase his traces. Then he jumped back into the river and headed towards the place where the divine temples congregated. Lucien had made his decision — If the legendary sorcerer was able to track his movements, then Lucien would lead him into the Single-eyed that Alterna mentioned. It was a desperate attempt at survival.

After he had reached the divine temple area, Lucien deliberately slowed down. He focused on sensing the surroundings, focusing on any changes to his left hand. If he had been able to escape the legendary arcanist tracing behind, then there was no need for him to provoke the Lord of War Antanas, as Lucien was confident that his special abilities of the Secretive coupled with the Silver Moon's self-cloaking would be able to let him escape this conspiracy.

He continued swimming like that for a while. Suddenly, Lucien sensed intense shaking in the water, as though there was an earthquake nearby.

Poking his head out from the water reeds, Lucien found that the mountain ranges on the outskirts of the city were enveloped by thunder. The air of death blocked out the moon, and the towering mountain peak collapsed.

Lucien surmised that senior-ranks were fighting there.

Could it be that Ell and the rest are trying to kill the God of Thunder and Lightning?

Immediately afterward, Lucien heard an angry roar. A black arrow flew out from the Temple of War.

As the distance between was too great, Lucien was unable to sense if the "Arrow of Antanas" hit its mark. However, the air of death did seem to tarnish a lot.

Then, a cloud of smoke rose from the Temple of War. Accompanied by the smell of conquest and the sound of the horn, Antanas bolted towards the outskirts of the city. Within a few seconds, he vanished into the air of death.

At the same time, from the Divine Temple of "the Star of Dawn and Dusk", a bright star rose and chased after the Lord of War.

However, when it tried to pass the Solna river, a terrifying black haze suddenly enveloped it.

The brilliant star flashed once more before falling from the sky, crashing into the riverbed and revealing a mature and sexy figure.

Asin asked in terror, "Francis?"

Before he could finish, A bright, clear silver moon rose from the woods and lunged itself at Him.

By a fraction of hair, Asin managed to avoid the main impact. He jumped into mid-air, and His face was even paler. The scimitar in His hand had been snapped.

"Ell?"

With his exclamation, countless starlights appeared around Ell, who was barely tangible. The starlights twisted into the shape of a cage, attempting to trap Ell inside.

A concentrated air of death oozed from Ell, dissipating the starlight cage. Ell said calmly, "Francis, help me tie him down. I will use the Command to take over his godhood. My incarnation, the Angle of Thunder and Lightning, the Angle of Earth, and the Angle of Wisdom cannot delay Antanas for long. After I absorb his godhood, I will be able to go toe to toe with Antanas."

Lucien who was still hidden in the water deeply approved the incoming battle, for it would help him cover his tracks, and he would then wait for an opportunity to escape. Meanwhile, he secretly wondered if it was Sophia who had planned all this for the false gods to take Ell's side.

As soon as Ell finished his sentence, a deep, rich sound asked, "Really?"

"Antanas?" Ell was shocked to see the towering, single-eyed man step out from the Temple of War. He carried a terrifying war hammer and gazed down at Ell with the steadiness of a mountain. Behind him was another well-built young man, the Sun God Bero.

Surprisingly, it was the true divinity of Antanas. He had sent out only his incarnation. What's more, he had not even taken the opportunity to ambush Ell.

Antanas smiled cunningly. "Don't pretend to be surprised. I know that Bero is lying to me. Your target is not Asin, but me. Come at me together, let me see what gave you your confidence!"

"What?" Bero took a few steps back in shock. His shield raised unconsciously.

He was indeed in cahoots with Ell. Pretending to be a double agent, he divulged to the Lord of War that Ell and his lot are plotting against the God of Love and Beauty, Asin. Bero told Antanas to use a special method to mix up his incarnation and his true divinity and hide within the Temple of War while waiting for the opportunity to give Ell and his lot a fatal blow.

The real plan, on the other hand, targeted straight for Antanas. As long as Bero could take advantage of the time when Antanas attacked Ell and let his guard down, He could land a fatal blow. Then, they would team up against Antanas. However, Antanas seemed to know the real plan.

Who had betrayed them? Why was Antanas so calm?

Francis calmed down. "The plan was simply there to make things easier. Since you have seen through our ploy, we would face you in honest battle."

In the surrounding darkness, three silhouettes appeared. They were that of a gloomy man, an elder in white robes, and a breathtaking beauty who was wearing purple armor and equipped with sword and shield.

"Natasha?" Lucien, who was still underwater, almost cried out in surprise.